Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Bar: It was Rohaizat's misconduct

The Malaysian Bar today clarified that it had stripped Umno's candidate for the Permatang Pasir by-election Rohaizat Othman of his legal pips because he was found guilty of misconduct, according to a Malaysiakini report.

This is contrary to the claim by Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi thatRohaizat's practising licence was revoked following problems incurred by the former partner in the legal firm.

However, Malaysian Bar secretary George Varughese said: "The finding of misconduct is personal to Rohaizat, as the (advocates and solicitors) disciplinary board would not hold a lawyer liable for the actions of his/her law partner(s)."

He said the board struck off Rohaizat, who is also a Syariah legal adviser, on March 7, 2008.

"The decision arose from an investigation into the complaint lodged against Rohaizat by the purchaser of a piece of property," he said in a statement.

"According to the complaint, Rohaizat failed to refund almost RM161,000 to the complainant after the transaction was aborted."

Varughese said Rohaizat had appealed against the decision of the board to the High Court and the appeal was dismissed on Aug 12 this year.

"He is therefore legally disqualified from practising as an advocate and solicitor," he added.

On Sunday, Zahid said the Umno candidate was eligible to contest in the Permatang Pasir by-election even if his licence had been revoked.

He said that the issue would not affect Rohaizat's chances in the by-election.

"Umno's legal advisers have run a check and found that he (Rohaizat) is still eligible to contest in Permatang Pasir.

"The Bar's decision must be respected by the lawyers registered under it. Legally, Rohaizat is probably innocent, but morally, it can be questioned by his opponents," he had said.

"This is an issue of public perception. We will explain to the voters what reallyhappened," he added, admitting that the opposition would definitely use the issue to their advantage.

Come Aug 25, Rohaizat, 38, will take on PAS' Mohd Salleh Man for the state seat, located in the heart of the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency in Penang.

The Permatang Pasir seat fell vacant when three-term PAS assemblyperson Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman died of an illness on July 31.

6 comments:

Tok Mommy..why didn't they vet through properly Rohaizat's background? I am very sure that BN could have fielded better candidates..we have so many.Yet they have picked out the wrong one.For sure the opposition will have a bullet to fire.Lets hope Rohaizat is lucky enough to win..people make mistakes.However,..its going to be quite tough to scrub of this matter right in the midst of the by-election..sigh!

Zahid was quoted by Bernama as saying "The Bar Council's decision must be respected by the lawyers registered under it. Legally, Rohaizat is probably innocent, but morally, it can be questioned by his opponents.

Sorry UMNO and sorry BN, I am not going to vote the black listed lawyer.I don't trust people who have a bad record to represent my kawasan.There are 17,400 registered UMNO members in Pematang Pauh, can't Zahid find a "better" candidate? What's so great about the guy?

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I believe someone screwed up the vetting process and Zahid Hamidi had to come up with such a stupid statement in defense of their candidate.

Right why didn’t they check on his background? Of course this revelation will be fodder for the Opposition. Blame it on the Umno leadership. Wrong choice of candidate. How could Umno choose a tainted candidate for this by-election.

Umno talks about having leaders who are clean & with integrity and then picked a lawyer who has been struck off the roll for CBT. And Rohaizat had the cheek to dismiss the matter as a “non-issue”. Go explain this to the voters . We’ll see if they will buy it.

I say good luck to Rohaizat cuz he needs it badly... loads & lots of it.

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